Shell wrote:

Ithink it's more a point on the type of person that will will do a good job for little pay, it's just a comparison of person

Well I guess that could be true. I am not working because I need to as I have an NHS Pension, but I work because I love working with the elderly and the vulnerable and occasionally those with 'Special Needs'. That is one reason why I simply cannot compare myself to a Holiday Rep. Reps work with tne General Public and they are a completely different kettle of fish to those who for whatever reason cannot look after themselves.

Holidaymakers CAN look after themselves, the popularity of DIY Holidays proves that.

Holidaymakers CAN look after themselves, the popularity of DIY Holidays proves that.

That`s debatable if you look at the statistics for tourists being robbed, c0nned and falling victim to other scA** Some shouldn`t be let out of the country

But it soes not sound like the original Author of this thread's daughter loves her job very much? And in addition to that her mother seems, rightly so I suspose, somewhat worried about her and her Repping Job.

There is no rightly so, I suppose about it BHIC, she is worried because her daughter is in another country and might be half your age.

My parents are not worried for me as a Care Worker, they are very proud of me

Again, you are not in Turkey and should be able look after yourself at your age.

Forget the nature of the job for a moment.....My youngest lad went to work in Sidari, Corfu for 2 summers...and I aged 10 years during that time with worry....and Yes he was not 21 yrs old.
Don`t get the 2 issues entwined...one is a job, the other is a mother worried and a totally separate issue.
You need to be a parent to fully understand the latter.

Sanji wrote:

Again, you are not in Turkey and should be able look after yourself at your age

Sanji wrote:

You need to be a parent to fully understand the latter.

No comment.

Sanji wrote:

Some shouldn`t be let out of the country

. For once I am in agreement with you. However, I stand by my own original comments, as DIY'ers don't tend to come into contact with Holiday Reps and many Package Tour Holiday makers simply don't bother with them in any case :-

Val and Rob wrote:

We tend not to have much to do with reps on holidays as we like to do our own thing

Sanji wrote:

Forget the nature of the job for a moment

Being a Holiday Rep is nothing like being a Care Worker, they are two entirely separate entities. The nature of the work undertaken by Holiday Reps is nothing like the nature of the work that I do as a Care Worker. I could PM you with graphic details of what my work involves, but that would betray the confidentiality of my 'Service Users', so I will not be doing that.

No further comment.

BHIC ... when you first posted that message, you said "No further comment" at the end of it.

But you have now edited it several times to add further comment. Could you let it drop now please and stick to your "No further comment" pledge.

David

so can we please get back on topic again.......

my friend's daughter works in the travel industry and her role is much more glamorous than the reppin side of it. She is one of those people that gets to travel all over the place testing out the holidays so that reports etc can be written in brochures...she is away most of the year holidaying in one place or another, but is really working.. i am sure there must be a down side to her job.. but off hand i can't think of one...

the reppin jobs look glamorous to all these youngsters because they have this idea of being in the sun and endless clubbin etc..and of course when you are young, green and cabbage looking you think it is a dream job.. but then reality kicks in and that is probably why there is a high turnover of staff...I often thought i would like a job as a kiddies entertainer in a holiday hotel.. and then i had a reality check and realised that it was not just organising kids games all day..needless to say, i decided to do something else.

When I hear of jobs like your friends daughter has I do feel a tad envious, but then I think to myself that she's probably done some cruddy jobs to get there, these things don't just fall in your lap do they? So good on her!

If you go into a repping job with the attitude of gaining experience and working hard but having fun too then you should be okay. My friend has to sack people every season because they don't want the responsibility of the work angle of it. Like she says you can go out and get as drunk as you want but you'll still be cleaning lodges at 9am tomorrow so it's up to you. She'll only tolerate so many instances of oversleeping!

With reps working all these long hours though I am always impressed by how well they are turned out. I'm sure I'd be all creased and crumpled in a nano second.

i am always impressed by how cheerful some of them remain despite spending hours with a hoard of screaming brats....enough to test the patience of a saint...

everywhere we have been, the reps who have run the kids stuff have always been great and our kids always have always taken to them. Even though the boy is too old for kids clubs now, he always ends up joining in various activities throughout the day and the reps who organise them are worth their weight in gold..

Thinking about this topic the problem seems to be that a parent has got an insight into what their offspring does for a living. And is horrified!

Whilst not wishing to offend in any way, it is not much different from a lot of others. As parents we want the best for our children, that is natural, but many that leave home have similar problems.

What they are paid and what they have to endure for it is something that concerns any caring parent.

We pay a lot of money for a holiday and assume that the people who take care of our needs are well paid for what they do. Sadly that is not always the case.

The job itself has an air of glamour, but like many other jobs that is an image that has built up over the years.

There is an air of bravado on the part of those who do it but I have no doubt that like a lot of other jobs it is 'bloody hard work'.

At the end of the day it is personal to the person who does it. They accept the conditions and get on with it or give it up.

I have no doubt that the experience will be beneficial long after the job is a distant memory.

I sometimes wonder if ignorance is not a blessing.

fwh

Sorry if this post has been a little misunderstood
Thank you to all those members who have sent me pm you know who you all are i appreciated you taking the time to send me messages

I think some members on this forum are quite right in saying that those programmes on tv about reps, show them in a very bad light, i totally agree and i think sometimes that could be the reason that they dont stick it out its not like on the tv, they very quickly realise its hard work lots of paperwork, not a lot of sleep ( on airport nights they may only have 2 or 3 hours sleep then back out to work) i think some of them think i dont think this is for me and thats probably why my daughter and 3 other reps left in resort now are taking the brunt of things, they know its going to be a really hard season with very little time off hotels and guests with problems etc etc but like most people on the forum have said stick it out it will only get better

Most part of being a rep is all about customer service first and formost

madsue wrote

Very true, my main aim is to ensure that clients have the best holiday possible. I am there to meet them at the airport, get them to their cars, ensure they know where they are actually going to (they have detailed instructions), answer questions, solve problems, accompany them should they have the misfortune to be ill, or robbed etc etc etc. And yes, sell them excursions if they want them, for which I am paid a commission, which varies depending on the excursion.

Totally totally agree with you my daughter is probably a youngster (23) but has 5 years service in customer services in a call centre for a bank and trained to NVQ in customer services so i know she can deal with problems in an efficient and caring way, to be honest she was told thats the reason why she got placed where she is, in the particular area she works they normally dont have reps as young as she is and as she was quite mature in her attitude they thought it would be a good place for her to work her first season.

There is a lot of things that happen in the background that the normal holidaymaker is never made aware of, one of the biggest things is when we fly home (hopefully we have all had a fantastic holiday ) we are handed out a questionair (forgive spelling) we dont realise how important it is to the TO and in particular the rep for us to fill it in (im sure some of us me included have felt oh i cant be bothered i just want to get home now) but in actual fact its one of the many important things that the TO looks at, especially in seeing if the rep you have had was suitable for where they worked and it could even be the make or break for the rep in working another season for the TO

Reps are told to sell excursions (commission is paid out to reps on a weekly basis for selling excursions ) so no sale of trips no money , or very few trips sold very little money earned

Yeah as a parent as any other parent would be i was horrified at what she was going through but not only her but the other reps she works with, its easier if our children work in the same country as us we can help and guide them but when they work abroad and all you hear on the other end of the phone is sobbing it kind of tuggs at your heart strings and especially as you know they are doing there best and sometimes there best is not good enough

Sorry its a bit of a long post

Holiday Reps what do they do?

Hmmmmm well our last package holiday our Rep shoved ourselves and a few other families onto a coach (after checking our accomodation) and 5 minutes down the road we all realised we had been put on the wrong coach. When this error was pointed out we were told they would drop us off at one place and we would have to walk to our accomodation with the fleeting statement "It's only a couple of streets to walk"!

My "I don't think so" didn't go down too well - we knew the resort and it was more like 20 streets away and there was no way I was walking anywhere as it was their mess-up!

She was none to chuffed and was downright rude at one point but I stuck to my guns and sure enough we were all dropped off at our proper accomodation!

Previous reps - well some enjoy the job and do it well, some would be better placed on the moon!

Generally find once you'd said "No" to excursions they don't want to know you.

Now go DIY and have to say - don't miss welcome meetings & don't miss reps.

we have NEVER attended a welcome meeting but we do find the reps at the airport, usually to tell them that we will be sorting out our own transfers so they can cross us off the coach list.

In the hotel, well it depends how often the reps are around as to how much interaction we have with them. Usually we do our own thing but the rep is handy to ask questions if it is a new resort we are staying in or ask about excursions. We tend to arrange our own excursions and often the info the rep gives is handy. Generally, we find reps to be sociable people, especially if you are polite to them. Some people treat the reps like dirt, and of course, nobody in the right mind is going to go out of their way to help someone that is treating them as if they were pond life.

hey guys well i thought seeing as my mum posted this about me i may as well tell you the truth from the horces mouth!!!

1. i do earn 80p an hour 88 hours standard and hour.
2. i new i would be on a low wage but was told i could easıly live off commision. wronggggg! the loverly man in front of the hotel sels my trips a lot cheaper.... but its a shame one of my guest went on a trip wıth him had a crash and ohhhh shock he dont have a licence to sell the trıps so oh ohhh there insurence was void. dammm but it was 15 quid cheaper.
3. i work for one of the most reputable companies in the uk travel inustry not thompson for everyon who travels with them... thompson did do away with reps and lost million in the process and are now in a financial very difficult situation.
4. today i have been working a total of 53 hours and have slept a total of 6 hours (including my nap on the bus on my way to work)
my accomodation is not to a standard of your hotels please belive me i have lots of friends though my brill red ants and i get on fantastıc my mozzys my jumping spiders. i have no fridge, no microwave so i cant leave any food in my little hutch as my friends (the ants) devour it. i have no air conditioning, i am lucky to have a fan but the hot air thats blown on me aint very nice sometimes only sometimes its not nice though
.
as for eating in the hotels yeah we can all good for me but after 10 hours of being in a hotel in one day then eating there all fine no probs but after 5 months of the same food all my guest get bored after 2 weeks. but yes i am very lucky my food is provided for us.
as for the shows on holiday reps we all seen it, dam my job looked like so much fun the didnt it but what everyone didnt realise is when we go out we also take guest with us cause they ask if were going out and we only have one day of every week to two weeks off so yeah ill admit i wanna blow off a little steam
it is fun though only today i have had to deal with 2 statitory rape cases, one assault of a child, being called everything under the sun because someone said there was to meany children in the hotel again let me reiterate i have only slept 6 hours in 53!!! its not the easiest thing in the world to ask a child questions like this as i am the only person the family have. if there was no rep who would those girls have had the help and compassion ... what from a foreign armed police officer. hmmm i think not.

also guys just to let you know i am not some jumpped up little 17 yr old as you have to be at least 21 to be a mainline rep! i have been in very very good jobs in the past that paid excepionally well in the finance field so im not someone whithout any responsabilıtıes and my only aim is to get drunk and sleep around because to tell you the truth im far to tıred to sleep around.

im not looking for sympathy but when you see your rep please ıf we look tired dont automatically assume i been off my tree drunk the night before. i love my job and serioulsy thinking about jacking it in not for the long hours not for the pay not for the selling stuff non of the aspects of the job but for the way i am treated by my guest. i have wored in customer service all my life and i have never ever been spoken to like i have in this job by you the public. i have had some fantastic gust and by fantastic i mean they saw me as human and i really appriciated that.

well that me done better get back i just wanted you all to know the truth. have fun guy and enjoy your next holiday with whatever that company may be. all im saying is im a person to

Many thanks for posting.

today i have been working a total of 53 hours and have slept a total of 6 hours (including my nap on the bus on my way to work)

So you did more than two full days of work with just 6 hrs of sleep
Mark

People might think you were older and more intelligent if you had a better grasp of english language, spelling, punctuation and formation of a paragraph.

But that's got nothing to do with it (sorry, I'm a funny one for use of proper english you see!).

Thanks for posting!

good for you kid. i hope you realise how proud your mum is of you.

val and rob wrote

good for you kid. i hope you realise how proud your mum is of you.

Thanks val and rob yes i am very proud of her

SandC wrote

People might think you were older and more intelligent if you had a better grasp of english language, spelling, punctuation and formation of a paragraph.

Well im sure if you or i had worked and may i add not finished 53 hours with only 6hrs sleep we may just not give a thought to our spelling and grammer and also she is dyslexic so i think maybe an apology is actually needed there, the kid came on here not having much sleep to try and let people know just what reps sometimes have to do and she gets slagged off for her spelling and grammer shame on you

Apology was already there actually. I've nothing more to add!

Well said Brit5alpha, as her Mother you should be very proud of your Daughter she is doing a great job, you sound like a very kind and careing Mum.
It is also very Rude to correct someone on their spelling and Grammer, and you shouldn't need to explain to anyone her reasons

Perhaps we should go back on topic please and discuss the role of the rep in this thread.

Thankfully, here at HT none of the posts made are entered into a grammar and spelling contest

MarkJ HT Mod